^^w 




OPINION^S 




SLAVERy; and 'BECOiSIRUCTIOII OF IHE UilOl 

AS EXPBESSED BT 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

WITH BRIEF NOTES 

BY 

HON. ^V^ILLIAM -WHITHSTG^. 



PRESIDENT Lincoln was educated in a section of the country 
where prejudice against the colored race was imbedded in State 
constitutions and in local laws. The avowal of anti-slavery senti- 
ments in Kentucky, Indiana, or Illinois before the war, could be 
made only by men of moral and physical courage. Yet, during 
the entire course of his public life, he has been a consistent, elo- 
quent, and feaiiess opponent of slavery. 

Tlie following passages, quoted from speeches, letters, and pub- 
lic documents, show that on many occasions since the first protest 
against slavery recorded by him as Repi-esentative in the Legislatui*e 
of Illinois, down to the present time, he has reiterated his deep and 
abiding conviction that slaveiy is morally, socially, and politically 
Avrong ; and his more recent letters and official messages to Con- 
gress show that he is now convinced that the removal of that in- 
stitution is essential to the permanent and peaceful continuance of 
the Union nnder the Constitution. 

Printed for the Union Congressional Committee by John A. Gray k Green. 



OPINIONS ON SLAVERY, AND ;J^::::2Xis:zr5i3m^ 



1 
r837. / 

PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY IN 1837. 

The following protest was presented to the House, (of Representatives 
for the State of Illinois,) which was read and ordered to be spread upon 
the journals : 

Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches 
of the General Assenably at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest 
against the passage of the same. 

They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and had 
policy ; but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase 
than abate its evils. 

They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the 
Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States. 

They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power under the 
Constitution to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia ; but that the power 
ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of said District. 

^^^ rLf;s. 

1858. 

NO PERMANENCE TO GOVERNMENT HALF SLAVE AND 
HALF FREE. 

From Speech at Springfield^ III.^ Jime IT, 185S. 

We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed 
object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the 
operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly 
augmented. In my opinion, it Avill not cease until a crisis shall have been reached 
and passed. ^'' A house divided against itself cannot standi I believe this Govern- 
ment cannot endure 'permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved — / do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease 
to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of 
slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind 
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advo- 
cates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as 
well as new, North as well as South. 

DRED SCOTT CASE THE KNELL OF FREEDOM. 

From the same. 

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike Imoful in all the 
States. Welcome or unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and mil soon 
be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and 
overthrown. We shall lie down, pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri 
are on the verge of making their State free, and we shall awake to the reality, in- 
stead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State. To iiieet and over- 
throw the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would pre- 
vent that consummation. That is what we have to do. How can we best do it ? 

I HATE SLAVERY AS MUCH AS ANY ABOLITIONIST. 

From Speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858. 
I am tolerably well acquainted with the history of the country, and I know that 
it has endured, eighty-two years, half slave and lialf free. I believe it has endur- 
ed, because during all that time, until the introduction of the Nebraska bill, the 
pubhc mind did rest all that time in the belief that slavery was in the course of ulti- 
mate extinction. That was what gave us the rest that we had through that period 
of eig£it;-t\F7c years ; at least, so I believe. I have always hated slavery, Ithink^ as 
much as anu abolitionist 



J 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION. 



THE NATION'S VERDICT ON SLAVERY. 

Prom the game. 

The American people look upon slavery as a vast moral evil ; they can prove it 
SJtch bi/ the ^pritingn of those who gave us thc'hlessings of liherti/ which we enjoy ; and 
that they so looked upon it, and not as an evil merely mufining itself to the States 
where it is situated. 

SHAM LOGIC ON MIXTURE OF RACES. 
From tJie same. 
I protest, now and for ever, against that counterfeit logic which presumes that 
because I did not want a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her for a 
wife. Mv understanding is, that I need not have her for either ; but, as Cxod made 
us separate, we can leave one another alone, and do one another much good 
thereby. There are white men enough to marry all the white women, and enough 
black men to marry all the black women ; and, in God's name, let them be so 
married. 

TO JUSTIFY ENSLAVEMENT OF BLACK MEN, JUSTIFIES 
ENSLAVEMENT OF ALL MEN. 

From the same. 
Turn in whatever way you will — whether it come from the mouth of a king an 
excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one 
race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race — it is all the same old ser- 
pent; and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of 
convincins; the public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, 
it does no^ stop witli the negro. I should like to know if, taking this old Declara- 
tion of Independence, which declares that all men are ecjual upon principle, and 
making exception to it, when will it stop ? If one man says it does not mean a 
negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man V If that Declaration 
is not the truth, let us get the statute-book, in which we find it, and tear it out. 
Who is so bold as to do it? 

QUIBBLING AS TO THE EQUALITY OF RACES MUST BE 

DISCARDED. • 

From the same. ^ 

Let us discard all this quibbling about this mq,n and the otner man — this race 
and that race, and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed 
in an inferior position — discarding our standard that we have left us, let us discard 
all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once 
more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. 

HATE OF SLAVERY BECAUSE OF ITS MONSTROUS INJUSTICE. 

In/the debate between Lincoln and Douglas, held at ^ttawo^ iwAuguit , OtfJ^ 
Ibol, he said : f^e^.ix. 

This r/z-z-^arrrfindififerencej/Jjut, as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of 
slavery, 1 cannot bu); hate. I hate it because of the inonstrom injustice of slavery 
itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence on 
the world, enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as 
hypocrites, causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially 
because it forces so many really good men among ourselves into an open war with 
the verv fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. 

THE NEGRO HAS A RIGHT TO EAT THE BREAD HE EARNS. 
From Speech at Sprina/if!<f, July 17, 18,%-. 
Certainly the negro is not our equal in color — perhaps not in many othcr^^o-j 
Bpccts : still, in the ri^ht to v^n^ int.. ni. mouth the bread that iiis o>ni h luds iiag-^^ 



4 OPINIONS ON SLAVEKY, AND 

earned, he is the equal of every other man, white or black. In pointing out that 
more has been given you, you cannot be justified in taking away the little which 
has been given him. 

THE CONVULSION CAUSED B^ EFS'OJEITS TO SPREAD SLA'^T'- 
EEY WILL CEASE WHEN SLAVERY CEASES. 

From, Speech at Jonesboro, III., Sept. 15, 1858. 
All the trouble and convulsion has proceeded from e^orfs to spread slavery over 
more territory. It was thus at the date of the Missouri t!o'mpTomii?e. It was so 
again with the annexation of Texas; so with the territory acquired by the Mexican 
war, and it is so now. Y/heneVer tliere has been an effort to spread it, there has 
been agitation and resistance. Now, I appeal to this audience, (very few of whom 
are my political friends,) as national men, wliether wo have reason to expect that the 
agitation in regard to this subject will cease while the causes that tend to reproduce 
agitation are actually at work. Will not the same cause that produced agitation in 1820, 
when the Missouri Compromise was formed — that which produced the agitation 
upon the annexation of Texas, and at other times — work out the same results al- 
ways V Do you think that the nature of man will be changed — that the same 
causes that p'ro(?uced agitation at one time will not have the same effect at anidther ? 

REPUDIATES THOSE WHO HOLD SLAVERY NOT V/ROIs'G. 
From Speech at Quinay, III., Oct. 13, 1858. 
I will say now, that there is a sentiment in the country contrary to me — a sen" 
timent which holds that slavery is not wrong, and therefore it goes for the policy 
that does not propose deaUng with it as a wrong. That policy is the Democratic 
policy, and that sentiment is the Democratic sentiment. 

THE TEXT OE THE CONSTITUTION IGNORES SLAVERY. 
'^ From the same. 

In all three of these places, being the only allusions to slavery in the instru- 
ment, covert language is used. Language is used not suggesting that slavery ex- 
isted, or that the black race were among us. And I understand the contempora- 
neous history of those times to be that covert language was used with a purpose, 
and that purpose was, that in our Constitution, which, it was hoped, and is still 
hoped, wUl endure for ever — when it should be read by intelligent and patriotic 
men, after the institution of slavery. had passed from among us — there should be 
nothing on the face of the great charter of liberty suggesting that such a thing as 
negro slavery had ever existed among us. This is part of the evidence that, the 
fathers of the Government expected and intended the institution of slavery to come 
to an end. They expected and intended that it should be in the course of ultimate 
extinction. And when I say that I desire to see the further spread of it arrested, 
4 only say I desire to see that done which the fathers have first done. 

' ' 1859. *^. 

THE MAN BEFORE THE DOLLAR. 

P From Letter to Boston Jefferson Awnmersary Committee, April 6, 1859. 

The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing, 
when in conflict with another man's right of property. Republicans, on the con- 
trary, are both for the man and the dollar, but in the case of conflict, the man 
before the dollar. 

HE WHO WOULD BE NO SLAVE MUST HAVE NO SLAVE. 

From the same. 
This is a world of compensations ; and he who would be no slave must consent 
to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves, 
and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. 



RECONSTRUCTION OF TIIK UNI OX. O 

DEPKESSED CONDITION OF THE BLACKS DEPLORED— MEAS- 
URES INFRINGING THEIR RIGHTS DISAPPROVED. 

FroiH Ltiier to Dr. L'anisim, and other Gernuiu citizens, Muij IT, K'O. 

' It is well known that I deplore the oppressed condition of the blacks ; and it 

would, therefore, be very inconsistent for nie to look with api)roval upon any 

measures that infringe updu tlie inalicnablr rights of wliito men, whether or not 

they are born in another land, or speak a diflerent language from ray own. 

CONSEQUENCES OP ESTABLISHING THE PRINCIPLE THAT 
THERE IS NO WRONG IN SLAVERY. 
/'/•((/// Speach at Oolwnbun, Ohio, Sept. IsbO. 
Then, I say, if this principle is cstahlishod, that there is no wrong in slavery, and 
whoever wants it has a right to have it, is a matter of dollars and cents— a sort of 
question as to how they shall deal with brutes ; that between us and the negro here 
there is no sort of question, but that at the South the question is l)etween the ne- 
gro and the crocodile. That is all. It is a mere niatter of policy ; there is a per- 
fect right, according to interest, to do just as you please ; wlien this is done, when 
this doctrine prevails, the miners and sappers will have formed public opinion, 
for the slave-trade. They will be ready for Jeff Davis and Stephens, and other 
leaders of that company, to sound the l)ugle for the revival of the slave-trad«, for 
the second Dred Scott decision, for the Hood of slavery to be poured over the free 
States, while we shall be here tied down and helpless, and run over like sheep. 

ROOM ENOUGH FOR ALL TO BE FREE. 

From Speech at Cincinnati, Sept. 1859. 
I say, there is room enough for us all to be free, and it not only does not wrong 
the white man that the negro should be free, but it positively wrongs the mass of 
white men that the negro should be enslaved ; that the mass of white men are real- 
ly injured by the effects of slave labor in the vicinity of the fields of their own 
labor. 

GOVERNMENT MUST ACT ON THE POLICY THAT SLAV- 
ERY IS WRONG. 

From the same. 

The spread of slavery impairs the general welfare, and is the only thing that 
threatens the perpetuity of the Union. We want and must have a national pvdicy, 
in regard to the institution of slavery, that acknowledges and deals with that in- 
stitut'ion as being wrong. Whoever desires the prevention of the spread of .slavery 
and the nationalization of that institution, yields all, when he nelds to anj policy 
that either recognizes slavery as beifcg right, or as being an indifferent thing. Noth- 
ing- will make you successful, but setting up a policy whicTi shall treat tlie thing as 
betn"- wroii"-. When I say this, I do not mean to say that this (xenertil Goverimient 
is eharg*;d with the duty of redressing or preventing lUl the wrongs in tlie worl4 ; 
but I do think it is charged with preventing and redressing all wrongs which are 
wrongs to itself. This Government is expressly charged with the duty of provid- 
ing' for the general welfare. We believe that the spreading out and perpetuity of 
the institution of slavery, impairs the general welfare. 

We believe, nay, we know, that that is the only thing that has threatened the 
perpetuity of the Union itself. The only thing winch luis ever menaced the des- 
truction of the Government under which we live, is this very thing. To repress 
Ghis thmg, we tliink, is providing for the general weUai-e. 

THE SPREAD OF SLAVERY MUST BE PREVENTED. 
From the tame. 
We must prevent the outspreading of the institution, because neither the Consti- 
tution nor the general welfare requires us to extend it. We must prevent the re- 
vival of the African slave-trade, aiid the enacting by Congress of a territorial 



f/ 



6 

slave code. We must prevent each of these things being done by either Con- 
gresses or courts. The people of these United States are the rightful masters of 
both Congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow 
the men who pervert the Constitution. 

Cooper Institute, Feb. 27, 1860. 

NOTHING WILL SATISFY SLAVEHOLDERS BUT THE AD- 
MISSION THAT SLAVERY IS RIGHT. 

From the, same. 

The question recurs — What will satisfy them ? Simply this : we must not only 
let them alone, but we must somehow convince them that we do let them alone. 
This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince 
them, from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all 
our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them 
alone ; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to con- 
vince them is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to 
disturb them. 

These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince 
them ? This, and this only : cease to call slavery lorong, and join them in calling it 
Hght. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acU, as well as words. Sileiiee 
will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avowedly with them. 

Xor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground save our conviction that 
slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitutions 
against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced, and swept away. If it is 
right, we cannot justly object to its nationality — its universality ; if it is wrong, they 
cannot justly insist upon its extension, its enlargement. All they asl:, we could 
readily grant, if we thought slavery right ; all we ask, they could readily grant, if 
they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our thinking it wrong, is the 
precise fact upon which depends the whole controversy. Thinking it right, as they 
do, they are not to blame for desiring its full recognition, as being right ; but 
thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them ? Can we cast our votes with 
their view, and against our own ? In view of our moral, social, and political re- 
sponsibilities, can we do this ? 

LET US ABIDE BY OUR FAITH AND DO OUR DUTY. 

From tfie same. 

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor 
frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons 
to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us to 
the end dare to do our duty as we understand it. 

1862. 

APPEAL TO THE BORDER STATES TO EMANCIPATE THEIR 

SLAVES. 

From Proclamatio7i of May 19, 1862. 

On the sixth day of March last, by a special message, I recommended to Con- 
gress the adoption of a joint resolution, to be substantially as follows : 

Resolved^ That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may 
adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery^ giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be 
used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public 
and private, produced by such change of system. 

The resolution, in the language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities in 
both branches of Congress, and now stands an authentic, definite, and solemn pro- 
posal of the nation to the States and people most immediately interested in the 
subject matter. To the people of those States I now earnestly appeal. I do not 
argue — I beseech you to make the argument for yourselves. You cannot, if you 
would, be blind to the sisns of the tinios. I bog of vou a calm and enlarged con- 



KKCONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION. 7 

sideration of them, ranging if it niiiy be, fur above personal and partisan politics. 
This proposal makc3 common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches 
upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come 
gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking any thing. Will you not 
embrace it? So much good has not been done, by one elfort, in nil past time, as 
in the providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast fu- 
ture not have to lament that you have neglected it. 

LETTER TO AUGUST BELMONT. 

July :n, 1862. 

Dear Siu : You send to Mr, W an extract from a letter written at New- 
Orleans the ninth instant, which is shown to me. You do not give the writer's 
name ; but plainly he is a man of ability, and probably of §ome note. He says : 
" The time has arrived when Mr. Lincoln must take a decisive course. Trying to 
please every body, he will satisfy nobody. A vacillating policy in matters of import- 
ance is the'very worst. Now is thi- time, if ever, for honest men who love their 
country to rally to its support. Why will not the North say officially that it wishes 
for the restoration of the Union as it was y" 

And so, it seems, this is the point upon which the writer thinks I have no policy. 
"Why will he not read and understand what I have said ? 

The substance of the very declaration he desires is in the Inaugural, in each of 
the two regular messages to Congress, and in many, if not all the minor documents 
issued by the Executive since the inauguration. 

Broken eo'o'S cannot be mended ; but Louisiana has nothing to do now but to take 
her place in the Union as it was, !)arring the already brok.j|p eggs. The sooner she 
does so, the smaller will be the amount of that which wilrbe past mending. This 
Government cannot much longer play a game in which it stakes all, and its enemies 
stake nothing. Those enemies must understand that they cannot experiment for 
ten years, trying to destroy the Government, and if they fail still come back into 
the Union unhurt. If they .expect in any contingency to ever have the Union as it 
was, I join with the writer in saying, " nov) is the t'uae.''^ 

How much better it would have been for the writer to have gone at this, under 
the protection of the army at Xew-Orleans, than to have sat down in a closet, writing 
complaining letters Northward. Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

LETTER TO HORACE GREELBY. 

Hon. Horace Greeley: August 22, 1862. 

Dear Siu: I have just read yours of the nineteenth, addressed to myself through 
the New-York Ti-ibune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact 
which I mav know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. If there 
be in it anv inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now Jlnd 
here argue against them. If there be perceptil)Ie in it an impatient and dictatorial 
tone, I waive" it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed 
to be right. 

As to the policy " I seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave 
any one in doubt. 

i would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitu- 
tion. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will 
be to the •' Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union 
imless they could, at the same time, save slavery, I do not agree with them. 
If there bo those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time 
DESTROY slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle 
is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save 
the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing 
all the slaves, 1 would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some, and leaving 
others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, 
I do because I believe it helps to save this Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear 
because I do imt believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less when- 
ever I believe that what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever 
I believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown 



8- OPINIONS ON SLAVERY, AND 

to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true 
views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty, and I 
intend no modification of my oft-expressed /»eASOrtaZ wish that all men everywhere 
could be free. Yours, A. Lincoln. 

SMANGIPATIOH THREATENED UNLESS REBELLION SHOULD 

CEASE. THE COMING OF THE EMANCIPATION 

PROCLAMATION ANNOUNCED. 

From Proclamation of Sept. 26, 1S62, 

It is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again recommend the 
adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or 
rejection of all slave States, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebel- 
lion against the United States, and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, 
or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery 
within their respective limits ; and that the effort to colonize persons of African 
descent, witb their consent, upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously 
obtained consent of the governments existing there, will be continued. 

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated 
part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and for ever free ; and the Executive Govern- 
ment of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will 
recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act nor acts to 
represss such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their act- 
ual freedom. % 

THE PROTECTION OE THE ARMY AND NAVY TENDERED 

TO THE ESCAPED BONDMEN OF REBELS. 

From the same. 

Attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled, "Act to make an addi- 
tional article 9f war," approved March thirteenth, 1862, and which act is in the 
words and figures following : 

" Be It enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled. That hereafter the following shall be promulgated 
as an additional article of war, for the govei-nment of the army of the Ignited States, 
and shall be obeyed and observed as such : 

"Article. — All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United 
States, are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective com- 
mands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have 
escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due ; and 
anf officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall 
be dismissed from the service. 

" Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after 
its passage." 

Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled, " An act to suppress insur- 
rection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, 
and for other purposes," approved July seventeenth, 1862, and which sections are 
in the words and figures following : 

"Sec. 9. And be it further enacted. That all slaves of persons who shall here- 
after be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who 
shall ill any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking 
refuge within the lines of the army ; and all slaves captured from such persons, or 
deserted by them, and coming under the control of the Government of the United 
States ; and all slaves of such persons f6und on [or] being within any place occu- 
pied by rebel forces and afterward occupied by the forces of the United States, 
shall Ijo deemed captives of war, and shall be for ever free of their servitude, and 
not again held as slaves. 

" Sfic. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Ter- 
ritory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or 
in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence 



RECONSTEtJCTION' OF THE UNION. 9 

against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the 
person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful 
owner, and has not borne arms against the I'^nitod States in the jtrcsent n-bcllion, 
nor in any way given aid f^nd comfort thereto ; and no person engaged in the military 
or naval service of the United States shiUl, uuder any pretence whatever, assume to 
decide on the validity of the claim of any person to ihc service or labor of any 
other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of beiug 
dismissed from the service." 

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged In the military and 
naval service of the United States to ol).-crve, obey, and enforce, within their re- 
spective spheres of service, the acts and sections above recited. 

IN GIVING FREEDOM TO THE SLAVE ^WE ASSUBE FHEEDOM 
TO THE FREE. 

From. Message of Deeemhcr 1, 1802. * 

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the litonny present. The occasion 
is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our c</.se is new^ 
so we must think anew, and act anew. We must diserdhrall ourselves, and then we 
shall save our country. 

Fellow-citizens, ive cannot escape history. We, of this Congres9, and this Ad- 
ministration, will be remembered in spile of ourselves. No personal siirniticance, 
or insignificance, c^m spare one or another of us. The fiery trial througii which we 
pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest ireneration. Wc say 
we are for the Union. The world will not torget that we say tlu.<. We know how 
to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we 
litre — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. Lt giving freedom to tite slave, 
we assure freedom to the free — honorahle •alike in what we gi>*e, and vhat we pre- 
serve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other 
means may succeed ; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just 
— a way which, if followed, the world will for ever applaud, and God must for ever 
bless. 

1863. 

THE GREAT HISTORICAL EVENT OF THE CENTURY. FREE- 
DOM PROCLAIMED TO THE SLAVE. 

From Proclamation, January 1, 1S63. 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of 
the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United 
States, in time of actual and armed rebellion against the authority and rrovernment 
of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing sai4 
rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, puVtlicly 
proclaimed for the full period of one himdred days, from the day first above-men- 
tioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people 
thereof, respectively, are this day in rebeUion against the United States, the follow- 
ing, to wit : 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines 
Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terro Bonne 
Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New-Orlerfns,) 
li^ississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia. South-Carolina, Xorth-Carolina, and Vir- 
ginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West- Virginia, and also the 
counties of Berkely, Aceomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, 
and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted 
parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare, 
that all persons held as slaves within said desijrmited Suites and parts of States, are, 
and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the L'nited 
States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and main- 
tain the freedom of said persons. 



10 OPINIONS ON SLAVERY, AND 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all 
violence, unless in necessary self-defence ; and I recommend to them that, in all 
cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, 
will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, po- 
sitions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the 
Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of man- 
kind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

THE EMATJ-CIPATION PKOCLAMATION JUSTIFIED. ITS BENE- 
FITS POINTED OUT. "THE PROMISE MADE MUST BE 
KEPT." "THE JOB "WAS A G-EEAT NATIONAL ONE, AND 
LET NONE BE BANNED V^HO BORE AN HONORABLE PART 
IN IT." " THANKS TO ALL !" THE MEMORIES OF BLACK 
MEN AND OF "SOME "WHITE ONES," -WHEN PEACE SHALL 
COME. 

From Letter to Jamen C. Conkling^ August 26, 1863. 

You disliked the emancipation proclamation, and perhaps you would have it re- 
tracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently. I think the Constitu- 
tion invests its Commander-in-Chief with the law of war in time of war. The most 
that can be said — if so much — is, that slaves are property. Is there, has there ever 
been, any question that, by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, 
may be taken when needed ? And is it not needed, whenever taking it helps us, or 
hurts the enemy y Armies, the world over, destroy enemies' property when they 
cannot use it, and even destroy their own, to keep it from the enemy. Civilized 
belligerents do all in their power to help themselves or hurt the enemy, except a 
few things regarded as barbarous or cruel. Among the exceptions are the massacre 
of vanquished foes and non-combatants, male and female. But the proclamation, 
as law, either is valid, or is not valid. If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If 
it is valid, it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to life. 
Some of you profess to think its retraction would operate favorably for the Union. 
Why better after the retraction than before the issue ? There was more than a year 
and a half of trial to suppress the rebellion before the proclamation issued ; the last 
one hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, 
unless averted by those who revolt, returning to their allegiance. The war has 
certainly progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the proclamation as before. 
I know, as fully as one can know the opinions of others, that some of the commanders 
of our armies in the field, who have given us our most important successes, believe 
the emancipation policy and the use of colored troops constitute the heaviest blow 
yet dealt to flie rebellion, and that at least one of those important successes could 
not have been achieved when it was, but for the aid of black soldiers. Among the 
commanders holding thedc views, are some who have never had any affinity with 
what is called AboHtionism, or with Republican party politics, but who hold them 
purely as military opinions. I submit these opinions, as being entitled to some 
weight against the objections often urged that emancipation and arming the blacks 
are unwise as military measures, and were not adopted as such in good faith. You 
say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you. 
But no matter ; fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union. I issued the pro- 
clamation on purpose to aid you in saving "the Union, Whenever you shall have 
conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it 
will be an apt time then for you to declare that you will not fight to free negroes. 
I thought that in your struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the negroes should 
cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to 
you. Do you think differently ? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do 
as soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the Union. 
Does it appear otherwise to you ? But negroes^ like other people, act upoN motives. 
Why should they do any thing for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake 
their lives for us, they must he prompted by the strongest motive^ even, the promise of 
freedom. And the promise being mtuky must be kept. 



KECONSTKUCTION OF THE UNION. H 

The sij,'ns look better. Tlio Father of Waters again iroes unvexed to the sea. 
Thauks to the great Xorth-We.st lor it. Xor yet wholly to them. Three hundre'.l 
miles up they met New-England, p]nipire. Keystone, and Jersey, hr^wiiig their way 
right and left. The .sunny South, too, in more eolors than one, also lent a hand. 
On the spot, their part of the history wa.s jotted down, in l)laek and white. The job 
was a great national one, and let none be banned who l)ore an honorable part in it. 
While those who have eleared the great river may well be proud, even that is not 
all. It is hard to say that any thing has been more bravely and well done tiian at 
Antietam, Murfreesboro, Getty.sburgli, and on many fields of le.sser note. Nor must 
Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they hare been pres- 
ent; not only on the deep sea, the lu-oad l)ay, and the' rapid river, but also up the 
narrow muddy bayou; and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have l)een 
and made their traeks. Thanks to all for the great Jiepublie, for the priueiple it 
lives by and keeps alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. 

Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come 
to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then 
have been proved that among free men there can he no successful appeal from the 
ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, 
and pay the cost. And then there will be anrnc filack men who can remember that 
ivith sile/it tongue and with clenched teeth, and .steadi/ eye and well-poised bayonet^ they 
have helped mankind on to this great consvmmntion. ; while I fear there voUl be mme 
white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and d/rcitful speech tliey have 
strove to hinder it. 

THE AMNESTY PROCIjAMATION. 

Wliereas, In and by the Constitution of the United States, it is provided that the 
President " shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for ottences against the 
United States, except in cases of impeachment ;" and 

Whereas, A rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of several 
States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have committed and 
are now guilty of treason against the United States ; and 

Whereas, With reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been en- 
acted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of property and liberation 
of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein stated ; and also declaring that the 
President was thereby authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend 
to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any State, or part 
thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such 
conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welliire ; and 

Whereas, The Congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon ac- 
cords with the well-established judicial exposition of the pardoning power ; and 

Whereas, With reference to the said rebellion the President of the United 
States has issued several proclamations with provisions in regard to the liberation of 
slaves ; and 

]Vherea~s, It is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in the said re- 
bellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to reuiaugurate loyal 
State governments within tmd for their respective States : 

Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, de- 
clare, and make known to all persons who have directly or by implication partici- 
pated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is 
hereby granted to them and each of them, icith restoration of all rights of property, 
except as to slaves, and in property cases where the rights of third parties shall have 
intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall lake and subscril.e 
an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain such oath inviolate, and which oath 
shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect 
following, to wit: 

" I, , do solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God, that I will 

henceforth faithfully support, protect, anci defend the Constitution of the United 
States and tlic Union of the States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide 
by and faithfully support all acts of Congress ptissed during the existing rebellion 
with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by 
Congress or by decision of the Supreme Court, and that I will in lik ; manner abide 



12 OPIXIOXS ON SLAVERY, AKD 

by and faitliftUly support all proclanmtiom of the President made during riie existing 
rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared 
void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God." 

The persons excepted from the benefits, of the foregoing provisions are all who 
' are or shall have been civil or diplomatic oflScers or agents of tlie so-co.Ued confe- 
derate government ; all vvho have left judicial stations under the United States to 
aid the rebellion ; all who are or shall have been military or naval officers of said so- 
called confederate government above the rank of colonel in the army, or of lieu- 
tenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the 
rebellion ; all who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States, 
and afterward aided the rebellion ; and all who have engaged in any way in treating 
colored persons or v/hite persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as pri- 
soners of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States service 
as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity. 

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that whenever, in any of 
the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, 
Florida, South-Carolina, and Xorth-Caroliua a number of perilous, not less than 
one tenth in number of the votes cast in such States at the Presidential election of 
the year of our Lord 1860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having 
since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State, exist- 
ing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall 
reestablish a State govermnent^ which shall be republican^ and in nowise contravening 
said oatli., such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State 
shall receive thereunder the benefi.ts of the constitutional provision which: declares 
that— 

" The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Eepublican 
form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on appli- 
cation of the Legislature, or the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be con- 
vened, against domestic violence." 

And I do further proclaim, declare, aud make known, that any provision which 
may be adopted by such Sfate government in relation to the freed people of such 
State which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their 
education, and which 'may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, ivith their 
present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to 
by the National Executive. 

And It is suggested as not improper that, in constructing a loyal State government 
in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the Constitution 
and the general code of laws as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to 
the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such 
others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expe- 
dient by those framing the new State government. 

To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this Proclamation, so 
far as it relates to State governments has no reference to States wherein loyal State 
governments have all the while been maintained. And for the same reason it may 
be proper to further say, that whether members sent to Congress from any State 
shall be admitted to seats constitutionally, rests exclusively with the respective 
Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive, 

And still further, thai this Pi-oclamation is intended to present the people of the 
States wherein the national authority has been suspended, and loyal State govern- 
ments have been subverted, a mode in and by which the national authority aud loyal 
State govei-nments may be reestablished within said States, or in any of them. 

And, while the mode presented is the best the Executive can suggest with his 
present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible mode would 
be acceptable. 

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the eighth day of December, 
A.D. one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the 
United States of America the eighty-eighth. 

Abraham Lincoln. 
By the President, 

William H. Seward, [l. s.] 
Secretarv of State. 



KECONSTRITCTIOX OF THE I'NTON. 18 

THE PBOCLAMATIONS IN REGARD TO SLAVERY INVIO- 
LABLE. 

From the Annual Jfesnage, December 8, 18C8. 

But if it be proper to require as a trst of aJmi/tsifm to the political hodi/ <in oath 
of alUfjiance to the United States, avl to'thr Union binder '^f, n-h-t/ not also to the 
lares and proelamatiom in regard to shivery ? 

Those laws and prorlamaf ions were jnd forth for tht pntptm of aiding in the ftv.p- 
pression of the rebellion. To (five thnn the fnllesf efft(^ iheire had to be a pledge for 
their maintenance. In my judgment f hey have aid^d, and will further aid, the cause 
for u'Jdch thei/were intended. 

To now abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, hut leonld 
also be a cruel ami astoundiiig breach of faith. 

I may add, at this point, while I rnn'oin in my present poiitimi T shall not attempt 
to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I return to shvn-y 
any person loho is free by the terms if that Prwlnmation, orr by any of the act* of 
Congress. 

1864. 

I AM NATURALLY ANTI-SLAVERY. IF SLAVERY IS NOT 
WRONG, NOTHING IS WRONG. 

letter to A. G. TTodges. April 4, ISM. 
You ask me to put iu writing the substance of what I verljally said the other 
day, iu your presence, to Governor Branilettc and Senator Dixon. It was about as 

follows : , . . r 

" / am naturally ayiti -slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nathttrg is wrong. 1 can- 
not remember when I did not so think and feel. And yet I have never understood 
that the PresiJencv conferred on me an unrestricted right to act officially upon 
this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took, that I would, to the best of 
my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Con?titTition of the United States. I 
could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it in my view, that T 
might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I under- 
stood, too, that in ordinary civil administration, this oath even forbade me to prac- 
tically indulge mv primary abstract judgment on the moral qun.«t5on of '=lavery. I 
had publiclv declared this many time.^, and in many ways. And I aver that, to 
this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my ab^ract judgment and 
feeling on slavery. 

'' I did understand, however, that7nvoa^A to preserve the Confftitution to the best 
of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispeiisable meam, 
that Government, that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was 
it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the Constitution? . 

" By general law, life and liml^must be protected ; yet often a limb must be am- 
putated to save a life ; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. 1 felt that 
measures otherwise unconstitidional, might become lawful, by becoming indLyyenstallr 
to the presei-vation of the Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right 
or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel, that, to the 
best of rny ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if io save slavery, 
or 'any minor matter, I shovf/l permit the lortck of the Government, country, and 
Constitution, all together. When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted 
military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable 
necessity. When a little later. General Cameron, then Secretaiy of War, puggeeted 
the arming of the blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable 
necessity. When still later, General Huiiter attempted military emancipation, T 
ao-ain forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. 
°" When, in March, and May, and July, 18o2, I made earnest and successive ap- 
peals to the Border States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indis- 
pensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, 
unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition ; and I was, in my 
best judgment, driven to the altei-native of either surrendering the Union, and with 
it the Constitution, or of laying a strong hand upon the colored element. 1 chose the 



14 OPINIONS ON SLAVERY, AND 



latter. In choosing it, I hoped for a greater gain than loss ; but of- this, I was not 
entirely confident. More than a year of trial, now shows no loss by it in our for- 
eign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white military 
force ; no loss by it, anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of 
quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are 
palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no cavilling. We have the men ; 
and we could not have had them without the measure. 

" And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself, by 
writing down in one line, that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms, 
and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred and thirty thousand men from 
the Union side, and placing them where they would be, but for the measure he 
condemns. If he cannot face his cause, so stated, it is only because he cannot 
face the truth." 

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this tale, I 
attempt no compliment to my sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but 
confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' 
struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party or any man devised or 
expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God 
now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills, also, that we of the North, as 
well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial 
history will find therein new cause to revere the justice and goodness of God. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

Executive Mansion, Washington, October 10, 1864. 
Hon. Henry W. Hoffman : 

My Dear Sir : A Convention of Maryland has formed a new Constitution for the 
State. A public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore, to aid in securing 
its ratification by the people, and you ask a word from me for the occasion. 

I presume the only feature of the instrument about which there is serious con- 
troversy, is that which provides for the extinction of slavery. It needs not to be a 
secret, and I presume it is no secret, that I wush success to this provision. I desire 
it on every consideration. I wish all men to be free ; I wish the material prosperi- 
ty of the already free, which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring. 

I wish to see in process of disappearing that only thing which ever could bring 
this nation to civil war. I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is 
already exhausted by the able, better informed, and more immediately interested 
sous of Maryland herself. I only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly if the 
good people of the State shall, by their votes, ratify the new Constitution. 

A. Lincoln. 

The purpose of the President has been, by savhig the Union, 
" to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution." 

Life has been sacrificed, property has been destroyed, jjrisoners 
of war have been taken, traitors have been arrested, ships have 
been captured as lawful prize, citizens have been drafted into 
military service against their will, and slaves have been set free 
against their masters' consent. 

Measures, authorized by the Constitution in time of civil war, 
have thus been used by the President for the purpose of prevent- 
ing the overthrow of that Constitution, and in so using them he 
has strictly and faithfully performed the obligations of his oath 
of office. 

If satisfied that he could have performed his ichole duty with no 
sacrifice of life, destruction of property, or release of slaves, mider 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION. 16 

such circumstances, having no ripfht to do so, lie would have 
taken no life, destroyed no ])ro))erty, and released no slave. 

To use such measures without necessity would he to use them 
without justification, and therefore to violate and not to maintain 
the Constitution. He was compelled hy the conduct of armed 
traitors, who began the war for the avowed purpose of breaking 
up the Union, to resist them by employing all available and justi- 
fiable means of defence. In his solemn and deliberate judgment 
the emancipation of slaves in the disloyal States became, in the 
progress of the war, a military necessity, afid thei-efore an ofhcial 
duty. 

To have disregarded that duty, to have allowed the Union to 
be destroyed, or even to be endangered, by neglecting to employ 
all authorized means of preserving and defending it, would have 
been an unpardonable crime. 

The question of the necessity of emancipating the enemy's 
slaves having been decided by tlie Commander-in-Chief of our 
army, and that measure having been juiblicly proclaimed, the 
President does not feel at liberty to withdraw or to withhold the 
rights guaranteed by that proclamation, because he deems that 
the faith of the country is pledged by his proclamations and by 
Acts of Congress, and because there is no power under the Con- 
stitution to return to slavery those who have once been made free. 

From a review of tlie foregoing passages, and especially the 
later writings of the President, it is obvious that his mind has 
kept pace with the march of events, and that, at the present time, 
he entertains the following views and opinions : 

First. He condemns slavery as a moral, social, and political evil ; 
as founded on injustice and bad policy ; as injurious to the race of 
white and to the race of colored men. To use his own language, 
" he hates slavery as sincerely as any abolitionist." 

Second. He deems slavery to be irreconcilable with the rights 
of man as set forth in the Declaration of Independence. 

Third. Though he admits that slavery is covertly recognized in 
the Constitution, he looks u])on it as exceptional, and as not con- 
sistent with the general principles therein set forth. 

Fourth. He believes that it there had been no slavery there 
would have been no war, and that the rebellion cannot be long 
maintained after slavery shall have ceased. 

Fifili. In his judgment, experience has now demonstrated that 
the continuance of that institution in the rebellious States is in- 
compatible with the restoration of the Union and the permanent 



16 OPINIONS ON SLAVERY. 

tranquillity of the country, both of which are essential to the de- 
fence and maintenance of the Constitution and the enforcement 
of the laws. 

Sixth. Entertaining these views, and being desirous to detacli 
the Border States from aid or sympathy with the rebellion, he has 
jiroposed and ^advised compensated emancipation therein. 

Seventh. And war having occasioned the necessity, the Consti- 
tution having conferred the power and imposed the duty on the 
President of dejDriving the public enemy of the aid of their slaves, 
he has proclaimed emancipation for the purpose of conquering re- 
bellion and thereby of preserving the Union and of defending the 
Constitution. 

Eighth. As slavery has been the means of breaking up the 
Union, and as the Union cannot be so speedily, safely, and securely 
restored with slavery as without it, the President has determined^ 
so far as the Executive Department of the Government has lawful 
control over the subject, that in reorganizing or reconstructing 
local governments in rebellious districts, with a view to their re- 
admission to the Union, slavery shall be for ever excluded there- 
from in the constitutions of their respective States, and that free- 
dom and justice shall be the corner-stone of the Union. 

Ninth. The President has pledged himself never to return to 
slavery any one who has been made or declared free by the terms 
of any proclamation or law of Congress. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

Hon. E. D. MORGAN, op New-York, , Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, 
" JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa, " R. B. VAN VALKENBURG, of New-Yore, 

" L. M. MORRILL, OP Maine. " J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio, 

Senate. " J. G. BLAINE, of Maine. 

Mouse of Representatives. 

E. D. MORGAK", Chairman. 
JAS. HAKLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLEY, Secretary. 



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